The festival was organised by the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship for participants of the O2LAB. O2LAB is a partnership between educational institutions and entrepreneurs across the Netherlands that works on effective teaching methods to promote entrepreneurship among students. Queen Máxima attended in her capacity as a member of the Dutch Committee for Entrepreneurship.
Impressed
After the plenary programme in the Aula, a group including student entrepreneurs had the opportunity to exchange ideas with Queen Máxima. The three student entrepreneurs Louis Euverink, Just Goossens and Sara Okhuijsen were impressed by Máxima. They laugh as they remark that the Queen clearly wanted to talk to them, not the VIPs in attendance.
The students had not been randomly selected to speak with the Queen, all three have started their own companies alongside their studies. Sara is with Oasys Now, a company working to make medical data more accessible. At the end of last year, the company won a prize of 1 million euros to invest. Louis is also in the medical field and is co-founder of Handjevol, which supplies responsible nut-based snacks to hospitals. Just has identified a completely different gap in the market: the online platform Fixrr, where you can find a reliable and above all affordable bike mechanic.
Homework well done
The three of them are still processing the moment after Her Majesty and her entourage have left. “She was supersharp”, says Louis. He wasn’t nervous, just a bit of clammy hands, but it was warm, after all. She had done her homework and listened attentively, Sara and Just confirm. They were also impressed by how Máxima led the conversation.
Máxima wanted to know, among other things, whether the students had enough space from the university to develop as student entrepreneurs. Their answer was yes. You have to be a bit lucky with your lecturers, says Just. Sara, who studies Nanobiology, agrees: “I have a really good supervisor who’s also entrepreneurial himself, and that’s quite lucky in my field.”
Louis managed to get across the point he had planned to raise with the Queen: “I think entrepreneurs in the Netherlands could stand to take a bit more risk. She laughed at that, so I think she recognised it.”
